difficult task of traversing the continent westward from the company's trading stations, with the view of reaching the Pacific ocean. Mackenzie started from Fort Chipewyan on this enterprise in October, 1792, with two canoes laden with merchandise. He proceeded in the first instance up the Unjigah or Peace River towards the Rocky Mountains, where he passed a long and severe winter, in huts constructed for the purpose. Leaving his winter quarters in the ensuing May, Mackenzie pursued his way, alternately by water or carrying the single canoe with which he now advanced, until he reached an inlet of the Pacific in lat. 52° 30´. Here he inscribed his name, with the date—July 22, 1793—on the face of a rock. In the course of this journey Mackenzie descended a portion of a stream which he supposed to be identical with the great river Columbia, but which really must have been the Eraser, since celebrated in connection with recent gold discoveries. He returned by the same route, and re-entered Fort Chipewyan after an absence of eleven months. Revisiting England in 1801, he published a narrative of his journeys, and subsequently was knighted. He died in 1820.—W. H.
MACKENZIE, Sir George, an eminent Scotch lawyer and miscellaneous writer, was the son of Simon Mackenzie, brother of the earl of Seaforth. He was educated at the universities of St. Andrews and Aberdeen, and afterwards studied civil law at the university of Bourges in France. He was called to the bar in 1659, and soon attracted attention by his ability and learning. He was counsel for the marquis of Argyle in 1661, and discharged his duty with great firmness and courage. He was appointed a justice-depute, but for some time professed patriotic sentiments and opposed, though not very heartily, several of the worst measures of the court. His patriotism, however, was only assumed to enhance his price. In 1677, on the dismissal of Sir John Nisbet, Mackenzie was made lord-advocate and one of the lords of the privy council, and was soon after knighted. He took a prominent part in the persecution of the covenanters, and rendered himself infamous by his unscrupulous perversion of the law, and the base arts and threats which he employed to extort a verdict of guilty from reluctant juries. His memory is still held in abhorrence by the peasantry of Scotland, among whom he bears the name of the "bloody Mackenzie." Notwithstanding his claims on the government for the foul work he had done, he was deprived of his office by James in 1686, on account of his refusal to assist in the repeal of the penal laws against the Roman catholics. But he was restored in 1688. After the revolution Sir George retired to Oxford, where he died in 1691. Mackenzie enjoyed considerable celebrity in his day as an orator, a scholar, and a wit, as well as an aisle lawyer. He was the author of "Religio Stoici;" "Moral essays upon solitude," "Moral gallantry;" "Consolation against Calumnies;" "The Moral History of Frugality;" "Institute of the Law of Scotland;" "Laws and Customs in Matters Criminal;" "Observations on the Laws and Customs of Nations as to Precedency," &c., which have been collected in 2 vols., folio. His "Memoirs," the most interesting of his works, were long lost sight of, and were accidentally discovered by Dr. M'Crie, by whom they were published. Sir George was the founder of the Advocates' Library in Edinburgh.—J. T.
MACKENZIE, George, Viscount Tarbat, and first earl of Cromarty, was the eldest son of Sir John Mackenzie, and was born in 1630. He was a zealous supporter of the royal cause during the civil war and the Commonwealth. In 1678 he was appointed justice-general, and in 1681 a lord of session and lord-register. He was an active and unscrupulous abettor of the arbitrary measures of Charles and his brother, and in 1685 was created by James, Viscount Tarbat. After the Restoration he lost his employments, but was restored to his office of clerk-register in 1692. At the accession of Queen Anne in 1702, he was made secretary of state for Scotland, and in 1703 was elevated to the dignity of Earl of Cromarty. He died in 1714. The earl was an able and experienced, but unprincipled statesman. He was the author of several historical and political treatises, of an "Explication of Daniel's Prophecy," &c.—J. T.
MACKENZIE, George, "who wrote the lives," says Dr. David Irving, "of so many Scottish writers, has not himself found a biographer." He was a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, where he practised during the first quarter of the eighteenth century, and published by subscription in three folio volumes between 1708 and 1722, his "Lives and Characters of the most eminent writers of the Scots nation, with an abstract and catalogue of their works, their various editions, and the judgments of the learned concerning them." According to a passage in the Diary of Wodrow (quoted in Mr. Maidment's Analecta Scotica), Dr. Mackenzie received an Oxford education, was a relative of Lord Grange, a friend of Dr. Pitcairn, from 1705 to 1711 physician to Heriot's hospital, an episcopalian, and a jacobite. He died in 1726. His work closes with Napier of Merchistoun, and though confused and undigested, is useful for reference.—F. E.
MACKENZIE, Henry, a popular Scottish essayist and novelist, was the son of Dr. Joshua Mackenzie, an eminent physician in Edinburgh, and was born in 1745. His mother was the eldest daughter of Rose of Kilravock, the representative of an ancient Morayshire family. After completing his education at the high school and university of his native city, young Mackenzie was instructed in the business of the exchequer, and in 1765 went to London for the purpose of studying the modes of English exchequer practice. On his return to Edinburgh he became the partner of his old master, Mr. Inglis of Redhall, and afterwards succeeded him in the office of crown agent. During his residence in London he sketched some part of his first work, "The Man of Feeling," which was published anonymously in 1771. This was followed some years later by the "Man of the World." His next production was "Julia de Roubigne," a novel in a series of letters. A tone of exquisite sensibility breathes throughout all these works, and the style is characterized by great accuracy and elegance. About the year 1778 a number of young gentlemen, mostly lawyers, formed themselves into a literary society, which came to bear the designation of the Mirror Club, and resolved to issue a series of papers on morals, manners, taste, and literature. These essays appeared in a weekly paper which bore the title of the Mirror, and were afterwards republished in three volumes, 12mo. The Lounger, a periodical of a similar kind, succeeded to the Mirror in 1785, and was equally successful. Mr. Mackenzie was the editor of both works, and contributed two papers to the former and fifty-seven to the latter. One of the essays which appeared in the Lounger in December, 1786, is devoted to a generous and highly eulogistic review of the poems of Burns, which had just been published. The cordial approbation so promptly bestowed upon the unknown poet, coming from such a quarter, was extremely gratifying to him, and at once fixed his place in Scottish literary circles. Mr. Mackenzie was one of the early members of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and contributed various papers to its Transactions. One of the best known of them is an elegant tribute to the memory of his friend Judge Abercromby; and another is an article on German tragedy, which bestows high praise on the Emilia Galotti of Lessing, and on Schiller's Robbers. In 1791 he published a small volume containing translations of the Set of Horses, by Lessing, and of two or three other dramatic pieces. He was an original member of the Highland Society, and published in its Transactions a defence of the authenticity of the poems of Ossian, and an interesting account of Gaelic poetry. In 1793 he wrote a life of Dr. Blacklock, prefixed to a quarto edition of the works of that amiable poet; and in 1812 he read to the Royal Society a life of John Home, author of Douglas, in which he gave an interesting sketch of the literary society which adorned the Scottish capital during the latter part of the eighteenth century. Mr Mackenzie seems to have had a strong ambition to excel in dramatic poetry, and wrote no fewer than five plays, several of which were brought upon the stage; but though not without merit, they all proved unsuccessful. In 1808 he published a complete edition of his works in eight volumes, to which he, for the first time, prefixed his name. During the exciting period of the war with France, Mackenzie wrote several political tracts in the interest of the government, and in 1804 was rewarded for his services with the office of comptroller of taxes for Scotland. He died at Edinburgh on the 14th of January, 1831, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. Mackenzie's writings are characterized by tenderness of feeling, and sweetness and beauty of style, rather than by originality or vigour. His personal character presented a striking contrast to his works. His wife used to say to him—"Harry, you put all your feelings on paper." "No man," says Sir Walter Scott, "is less known from his writings. You would suppose a retired, modest, somewhat affected man, with a white handkerchief, and a sigh ready for every sentiment. No such thing. He is alert as a contracting tailor's needle in any sort of business—a politician and a sportsman—shoots and fishes
